A framework for assessment and monitoring of arthropods in a lowland tropical forest

By applying principles of adaptive management, and by using the valuable information that arthropods provide from assessment and monitoring programs, managers can identify and reduce possible impacts on biodiversity in development projects. In 1996, the Smithsonian Institution's Monitoring and Assessment of Biodiversity program worked together with Shell Prospecting and Development Peru to establish an adaptive management program to protect biodiversity in a natural gas exploration project in a Peruvian rainforest. In this paper, we outlined the conceptual steps involved in establishing an assessment and monitoring program for arthropods, including setting objectives, evaluating the results and making decisions. We also present the results of the assessment using some of groups of arthropods, and summarize the steps taken to identify appropriate groups for monitoring.     

Indices for assessment and monitoring of large mammals within an adaptive management framework

Many development projects intended to exploit natural resourcesare occurring in fragile ecosystems, and therefore the need forsound biodiversity assessment and monitoring programs is growing.Large mammals are important components of these fragile ecosystems, yet there are few strategies that attempt to assess and monitor entire large mammal communities in relation to development projects. We propose the use of two indices applied within a framework of adaptive management. An occurrence indexassesses the composition and distribution of large mammals at a site, and an abundance index monitors the abundance of large mammals over time in relation to development. We discuss the design, applicability and effectiveness of these indices based onour experience with a natural gas development project in the Amazon forests of southeastern Peru.     

Quantifying impact reduction due to avoidance,minimization and restoration for a natural gas pipeline in the Peruvian Andes

We present monitoring methods and quantitative biodiversity data to document components of the mitigation hierarchy. We estimated avoidance, minimization, restoration and impact reduction in quality hectares for the 25 m wide right of way of a 408 km natural gas buried pipeline that crosses 14 Ecological Landscape Units (ELUs) in the tropical Andes of Peru. We found that applying the mitigation hierarchy as part of a comprehensive biodiversity action plan substantially reduced impacts on biodiversity in all habitats studied. Avoidance and right of way minimization contributed to significant impact reduction. We quantified impact reduction during construction and operation on the right of way of the pipeline over a five-year period and found that restoration was the greatest contributor to reducing impacts. We documented that most ELUs have a positive restoration trajectory. We also documented how monitoring over large scale spatial scales, in combination with site-specific monitoring, generated data for management to determine restoration priorities and impact mitigation. A biodiversity action plan that incorporated the mitigation hierarchy and a science-based biodiversity monitoring and assessment program contributed to biodiversity management of the project and played an important role in minimizing and managing impacts.     

Biodiversity and bird surveys in Finnish environmental impact assessments and follow-up monitoring

Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) that are applied in the planning phases of large land-use and construction projects are aimed at aiding decision-making and mitigating significant environmental impacts. In light of the global biodiversity crisis, conducting high-quality biodiversity impact assessments is important, as biodiversity information, among other factors, has the potential to influence how projects will be implemented in the end. We investigated the biodiversity and bird surveys conducted and the number of bird species of conservation concern in peat extraction and wind farm projects to which an EIA was applied to in 1995–2016 in Finland and compared whether these factors differed between the project types and between implemented and unimplemented projects. We also studied the availability of follow-up monitoring data of biodiversity impacts within the two project types. The number of nationally threatened breeding birds was significantly lower in implemented than in unimplemented peat extraction projects. The overall probability of being implemented was significantly negatively associated with the year the EIA began for both project types. All permitted peat extraction projects and 22% of wind farm projects conducted post-construction biodiversity monitoring; however, only some projects enabled before-after comparisons. Our results are in line with earlier findings that demonstrate the difficulty of showing the direct impacts of biodiversity information on EIA decision-making and to what extent it is related to project approval or rejection. The role of follow-up monitoring in the EIA and project development could also be strengthened.     

An assessment and monitoring program for birds in the Lower Urubamba region,Peru

We developed an assessment and monitoring plan for birds in connection with the exploration and potential development of a large natural gas field in the Lower Urubamba drainage of Peru, a project of Shell Prospecting and Development Peru (SPDP). Our objectives were to: (1) inventory the birds in the area, including information on habitat use and abundance, and (2) devise long-term monitoring protocols for birds. We sampled birds through a combination of visual and auditory surveys and mist-netting at 4 well sites and 3 sites along the Urubamba and Camisea rivers. We recorded 420 speciesduring 135 days of field work. We consider the highest prioritiesfor a future monitoring program to be: (1) establish whether edge effects are occurring at well sites, along roads and alongthe planned pipeline route and determine the significance and extent of these effects and (2) assess the impact of increased human access to the area on game and other exploited species. The remoteness of the area, its rugged terrain and dense vegetation and the lack of trained personnel limit the choice of survey and monitoring methods. We recommend use of mist-netting and transects for monitoring edge effects and useof transects for monitoring game and other exploited species.     

Landscape scale ecological monitoring as part of an EIA of major construction activities: experience at the Turkish section of the BTC crude oil pipeline project

Ecological monitoring is a complementary component of the overall environmental management and monitoring program of any Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report. The monitoring method should be developed for each project phase and allow for periodic reporting and assessment of compliance with the environmental conditions and requirements of the EIA. Also, this method should incorporate a variance request program since site-specific conditions can affect construction on a daily basis and require time-critical application of alternative construction scenarios or environmental management methods integrated with alternative mitigation measures. Finally, taking full advantage of the latest information and communication technologies can enhance the quality of, and public involvement in, the environmental management program. In this paper, a landscape-scale ecological monitoring method for major construction projects is described using, as a basis, 20 months of experience on the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) Crude Oil Pipeline Project, covering Turkish Sections Lot B and Lot C. This analysis presents suggestions for improving ecological monitoring for major construction activities.     

Monitoring: The missing piece: A critique of NEPA monitoring

The U.S. National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 heralded in an era of more robust attention to environmental impacts resulting from larger scale federal projects. The number of other countries that have adopted NEPA's framework is evidence of the appeal of this type of environmental legislation. Mandates to review environmental impacts, identify alternatives, and provide mitigation plans before commencement of the project are at the heart of NEPA. Such project reviews have resulted in the development of a vast number of reports and large volumes of project-specific data that potentially can be used to better understand the components and processes of the natural environment and provide guidance for improved and efficient environmental protection. However, the environmental assessment (EA) or the more robust and intensive environmental impact statement (EIS) that are required for most major projects more frequently than not are developed to satisfy the procedural aspects of the NEPA legislation while they fail to provide the needed guidance for improved decision-making. While NEPA legislation recommends monitoring of project activities, this activity is not mandated, and in those situations where it has been incorporated, the monitoring showed that the EIS was inaccurate in direction and/or magnitude of the impact. Many reviews of NEPA have suggested that monitoring all project phases, from the design through the decommissioning, should be incorporated. Information gathered though a well-developed monitoring program can be managed in databases and benefit not only the specific project but would provide guidance how to better design and implement future activities designed to protect and enhance the natural environment.     

National Inventory of Landscapes in Sweden (NILS)��scope, design, and experiences from establishing a multiscale biodiversity monitoring system

The landscape-level and multiscale biodiversity monitoring program National Inventory of Landscapes in Sweden (NILS) was launched in 2003. NILS is conducted as a sample-based stratified inventory that acquires data across several spatial scales, which is accomplished by combining aerial photo interpretation with field inventory. A total of 631 sample units are distributed across the land base of Sweden, of which 20% are surveyed each year. By 2007 NILS completed the first 5-year inventory phase. As the reinventory in the second 5-year phase (2008?C2012) proceeds, experiences and insights accumulate and reflections are made on the setup and accomplishment of the monitoring scheme. In this article, the emphasis is placed on background, scope, objectives, design, and experiences of the NILS program. The main objective to collect data for and perform analyses of natural landscape changes, degree of anthropogenic impact, prerequisites for natural biological diversity and ecological processes at landscape scale. Different environmental conditions that can have direct or indirect effects on biological diversity are monitored. The program provides data for national and international policy and offers an infrastructure for other monitoring program and research projects. NILS has attracted significant national and international interest during its relatively short time of existence; the number of stakeholders and cooperation partners steadily increases. This is constructive and strengthens the incentive for the multiscale monitoring approach.     

Follow-up to environmental impact assessment: Learning from the Canadian Government experience

The environmental impact assessment procedure for Canadian federal government projects is briefly described. In the non-legislated Canadian system, follow-up to assessments is one of the major means of encouraging and improving the implementation of environmental impact assessment and the quality of environmental work done around development projects. The results of a study on the status of follow-up in the Canadian Government are presented. Factors that limit and that are conducive to follow-up are discussed. The effectiveness of follow-up depends as much on the circumstances surrounding a project and the concerned parties as on the follow-up techniques used; both of these aspects can be addressed in the planning and management of follow-up and of environmental impact assessment overall. Areas for improving the management of follow-up are identified and discussed: planning of follow-up activities, coordination of concerned parties, generation of clear understandings, information management, resource allocation, and maintenance of credibility. A method for planning follow-up activities for specific projects is presented.     

Phase-based externality analysis for large hydropower projects

The global pressure of reducing greenhouse gas emission with an increasing energy demand has promoted the development of hydropower projects. However, these projects are always involved with controversial issues even when providing great positive externalities. This calls for more comprehensively quantitative analysis of hydropower project externalities. This paper establishes an analysis framework for hydropower project externalities based on the Life Cycle Assessment methodology and the economic valuation of hydropower externalities, and then applies the framework to the assessment of the Three Gorges Project and the Xiluodu Project as cases. The results indicate that: (1) hydropower project externalities are multi-component and dynamic in different phases of project life cycle; (2) the construction of large hydropower projects is beneficial for social welfare promotion, but the enhancement doesn't appear immediately at the startup but with a lag; and (3) along the life cycle of a hydropower project, negative externalities are prominent in the early phases while positive ones account for a major proportion in the late phases, calling for special attention to risk management during the construction and benefit allocation management during project operation. The results and recommendations of this paper can also be applied to other types of public or private projects for better social performance.     

The corporate impact of addressing social issues: a financial case study of a project in Peru

Large, multinational resource development projects can affectmany aspects, including social, economic and ecological realities, in the regions where they operate. Social and environmental issues that are usually ignored in such projectsare increasingly affecting the financial future of multinationalcorporations in negative ways. In this article, we advance the argument that corporations can successfully manage these issuesand that if they choose to view these management efforts as an investment rather than an expense, they may well acquire a competitive advantage over companies that do not. We describe asa case study the Camisea natural gas and condensates developmentproject in Peru, operated by Shell Prospecting and Development Peru (SPDP). Camisea is one of the first projects anywhere inthe world to conduct a detailed analysis of key industry-relatedsocial issues and the processes, required investment and financial impact of managing them. The Camisea example supportsthe argument that addressing social and environmental concerns makes financial sense. In present value terms, the benefit ofmanaging these concerns was expected to surpass the cost investment by approximately US$50 million.     

The need for long-term stream monitoring programs in forest ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest

Concepts, planning and design procedures are examined that are needed in the development of long-term stream monitoring programs in forested regions. A long-term stream monitoring program is viewed as the key component for bringing together management organizations, researchers and decision-makers to improve the management of natural resources. The keystones of such ecosystem monitoring are long-term data records that provide the basis for analysis of environmental assessment objectives, predictions and analysis of outcomes which in-turn can be used to modify and improve future projects. Management organizations that initiate long-term monitoring programs are urged to use monitoring actions and information to facilitate decision-making processes that pertain to conserving and allocating resources for future beneficial uses. Recommendations are provided for careful planning and definition of interactive activities of monitoring programs and that should provide information feedbacks that can be used to evaluate issues pertaining to beneficial uses of resources. Procedural requirements and literature sources are suggested for developing long-term stream monitoring programs. They include reviews of background and historical information to provide precise definitions of long-term objectives, planning considerations and monitoring methods. Examples are given of specific procedures that need to be identified during the planning process. They include the application of management standards to variable conditions encountered within natural ecosystems and the detection of the timing of recovery phases of stream ecosystem development following a disturbance. These procedures are viewed as being essential for improving applications of management standards and perceived thresholds to stream and watershed ecosystems monitoring programs.     

A framework for combining social impact assessment and risk assessment

An increasing focus on integrative approaches is one of the current trends in impact assessment. There is potential to combine impact assessment with various other forms of assessment, such as risk assessment, to make impact assessment and the management of social risks more effective. We identify the common features of social impact assessment (SIA) and social risk assessment (SRA), and discuss the merits of a combined approach. A hybrid model combining SIA and SRA to form a new approach called, ‘risk and social impact assessment’ (RSIA) is introduced. RSIA expands the capacity of SIA to evaluate and manage the social impacts of risky projects such as nuclear energy as well as natural hazards and disasters such as droughts and floods. We outline the three stages of RSIA, namely: impact identification, impact assessment, and impact management.     

Assessment of online public opinions on large infrastructure projects: A case study of the Three Gorges Project in China

Public opinion becomes increasingly salient in the ex post evaluation stage of large infrastructure projects which have significant impacts to the environment and the society. However, traditional survey methods are inefficient in collection and assessment of the public opinion due to its large quantity and diversity. Recently, Social media platforms provide a rich data source for monitoring and assessing the public opinion on controversial infrastructure projects. This paper proposes an assessment framework to transform unstructured online public opinions on large infrastructure projects into sentimental and topical indicators for enhancing practices of ex post evaluation and public participation. The framework uses web crawlers to collect online comments related to a large infrastructure project and employs two natural language processing technologies, including sentiment analysis and topic modeling, with spatio-temporal analysis, to transform these comments into indicators for assessing online public opinion on the project. Based on the framework, we investigate the online public opinion of the Three Gorges Project on China's largest microblogging site, namely, Weibo. Assessment results present spatial-temporal distributions of post intensity and sentiment polarity, reveals major topics with different sentiments and summarizes managerial implications, for ex post evaluation of the world's largest hydropower project. The proposed assessment framework is expected to be widely applied as a methodological strategy to assess public opinion in the ex post evaluation stage of large infrastructure projects.     

浅谈基层单位环境监测专项经费的管理

随着环境监测事业的不断发展,中央财政对环保监测事业经费投入大幅上升,资金安排规模逐年加大,加强环境监测项目经费管理显得尤其重要.文章提出如何科学地编制环境监测项目支出预算,并深入分析了环境监测项目管理存在的问题,进一步提出了加强项目支出预算的管理途径地方法.     

Effective application of monitoring information: the case of San Francisco Bay

The San Francisco Estuary Regional Monitoring Program (RMP) for Trace Substances is an innovative partnership among a regulatory agency, more than 70 regulated entities, and an independent scientific organization. The institutional arrangement behind the RMP has made the regulatory system increasingly responsive to emerging management needs, particularly with regard to the development of total maximum daily loads and ecosystem impairment assessment. Through multi-agency partnerships within and outside the RMP institutional structure, major information gaps for several pollutants of concern have been narrowed, resulting in a successful consensus-based regulatory approach to managing copper and nickel mass inputs into the Estuary. Short-term research efforts, based upon monitoring results, helped identify the most cost-effective control and remediation options for various bioaccumulative substances. Additionally, adaptive changes to the monitoring program documented the existence of widespread aquatic toxicity in the Estuary that is apparently due to pesticide runoff from agricultural and urban areas. One of the most important contributions of this collaborative monitoring program is the deliberate and systematic adjustment of management and research questions that serve to influence and add relevance to the overall research agenda related to San Francisco Estuary ecosystem assessment.     

A framework for adaptive monitoring of the cumulative effects of human footprint on biodiversity

Effective ecological monitoring is imperative in a human-dominated world, as our ability to manage functioning ecosystems will depend on understanding biodiversity responses to anthropogenic impacts. Yet, most monitoring efforts have either been narrowly focused on particular sites, species and stressors — thus inadequately considering the cumulative effects of multiple, interacting impacts at scales of management relevance — or too unfocused to provide specific guidance. We propose a cumulative effects monitoring framework that integrates multi-scaled surveillance of trends in biodiversity and land cover with targeted evaluation of hypothesized drivers of change. The framework is grounded in a flexible conceptual model and uses monitoring to generate and test empirical models that relate the status of diverse taxonomic groups to the nature and extent of human “footprint” and other landscape attributes. An adaptive cycle of standardized sampling, model development, and model evaluation provides a means to learn about the system and guide management. Additional benefits of the framework include standardized data on status and trend for a wide variety of biodiversity elements, spatially explicit models for regional planning and scenario evaluation, and identification of knowledge gaps for complementary research. We describe efforts to implement the framework in Alberta, Canada, through the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute, and identify key challenges to be addressed.     

Monitoring lakes for restoration

Lake restoration projects require substantial monitoring. Primary purposes are to assess a lake problem, determine its causes and design or develop a corrective program. Hundreds of these lake monitoring projects have been initiated in the United States over the past decade. A number of field limnological activities can be improved to make the monitoring results more applicable to the objectives of a project. This paper discusses twenty of the most common limnology procedures that may go awry in applied limnology and makes suggestions, alternatives or improved field and project procedures. Expenditures may be reduced, but more important can be an increased use capability of the information for the scientific and engineering needs of a lake restoration effort.